The Cake Speaks
by blue-eyed-cow
Summary: "No, mister cake! If I eat you, Gill will hate me forever! But… you do look really good… just one little bite wouldn't hurt, right?" Funny One-Shot about what would happen if Elana helped Gill bake a cake for Luna. Animal Parade.


**A/N: Welcome, everyone, to The Cake Speaks! This One-Shot was supposed to be very short, but it didn't quite turn out that way. So I know the beginning it a little slow, but please read through that so you can get to the good part! Thanks!**

** Oh, and the famer, Angela, is named Elana in this story. I hate the name Angela. Sorry to anyone named Angela out there. I'm sure you're a very charming person. I'm just not a huge fan of the name.**

** Enjoy!**

** Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon: Animal Parade. If I did, Harmony Day probably wouldn't be a holiday. I mean, really? Who gives people random pieces of cake to show how much they mean to each other? It's just weird.**

How do you wake up in the morning?

I bet your answer is probably one of two: either you have some sort of alarm clock, or your parents wake you up. Maybe sometimes you have enough skill to get yourself out of bed every morning on your own, without the assistance of anything. Well, if that's the case, then that's pretty impressive.

Me? Well, my wake-up call in the morning is slightly different. See, mine involves a floating, magical harvest sprite tugging at my ear and yelling at me.

Yeah, my bet is that my wake-up call differs from yours. At least a little.

So, on the fourth day of winter, just like any other day, I was awoken at exactly six o'clock sharp by Finn; my own personal alarm clock. The type you can't ignore. And if you _do_ attempt to ignore this alarm clock, it tugs at your ear until you basically fall out of bed, onto the stiff hardwood floor of your house. Fun, fun, fun.

"Elana! Elana, get your butt out of bed! You have a lot to do today!"

I moaned and rolled onto my other side, trying to throw off the floating fairy who was viciously tugging at my ear. "I always have a lot to do, Finn. Ten more minutes wouldn't hurt…"

"But, Elana! Tomorrow's Harmony Day!"

Crap.

Next thing I knew, my stupid feet were dragging me out of bed, my body along with it. Still half asleep, I rummaged through my clothing drawer, picked out something that looked decent, and ran into the bathroom to change and wash up. Ten minutes later, I was up and ready to face the day ahead of me.

"Ok, ok, you look fine. Hurry up with the chores, then get going!" Finn was flying around my head in circles.

Not even bothering to question him at this point, I made my way to the old wooden door, wrenched it open, and stepped outside.

Then came the same routine as every morning: water the crops, tend to the animals, ship the goods, collect things around the yard, and all those other fun things.

Then, with fresh eggs, jugs of milk, and freshly made butter in hand, I ran back inside, where Finn had already set up the oven and bowls and spoons.

"I still need wheat flower and toppings," I told him quickly, opening the fridge and stuffing the gathered ingredients inside. "What else does the recipe say?"

He flew over to my bookshelf, where he pulled with all his might at an old, green book. It fell from the bookcase onto the floor, with the cake page already open. He floated down to the ground to read it.

"It looks like every cake requires wheat flour, eggs, milk, and butter. As for the extra ingredients, you can use chestnuts, strawberries, yams, carrots, pumpkins, spinach, oranges, cheese, or cocoa fruit. What do yah think?"

I pondered over this, then said, "I have some chestnuts, yams, carrots, and pumpkins left from fall harvest. I can get strawberries, spinach, and oranges from Marimba Farm. I can make cheese. And I am _not_ going all the way to Toucan Island to get cocoa fruit," I crossed my arms, "because that's just ridiculous."

Finn smiled. "Fair enough. To Flute Fields?"

I nodded. "Let me just get some money and the wheat. We can take the horse."

So, in a few minutes, Finn was happily sitting on my shoulder as we galloped on my horse, Milo, to Flute Fields. We were there in a matter of minutes. It was another routine, so I was just going through the motions. I walked into the old watermill, dropped an armful of wheat into the copper bowl to be crushed into flour, and then left it there to go to Marimba Farm. I greeted a grumpy Craig and a happy Taylor, walked into the store, and purchased everything I needed from Ruth. After saying a quick hello to Anissa, I stopped back at the watermill to pick up my freshly ground flour, collecting it into a bag.

And, as easy as that, we had all the ingredients we needed to bake a crap-load of cakes to give to basically everyone on the island tomorrow.

For those of you who are slightly confused at this point, let me explain. The fifth day of winter, every year, is called Harmony Day. You pretty much give a piece of cake to anyone who you are thankful for. The first year I lived here, I had no idea what it was. Random people were giving me cake, expecting a piece back, and I had no idea what the heck was happening. It was pretty funny, looking back on it. The second year, I was slightly more prepared, but still basically failed. I waited until the very last second to not only bake the cakes, but also buy the ingredients. I had failed to realize that all the stores on the island would be closed, since it was a holiday. I had ended up giving out a few very boring, very bland cakes.

But not this year. This year, I was prepared.

When I got home, I immediately whipped out all the ingredients I needed, along with all the cooking utensils, and a list I had made of what kind of cake different people liked. I was just about to begin when my stomach growled loudly.

Finn must of heard it growl, too. "No way, Elana. No snacking until you're done with the cakes."

"But Fi-i-i-i-innn! I drawled out his name, throwing my arms up into the air. "I'm hungry! I need lunch! And breakfast, for that matter!"

"No way. Knowing you, you'll be snacking on the ingredients until we have nothing left. Once you're _done, _you can eat. But not until then. Too risky."

I knew he was right, but I was still hungry.

Once again, we were about to begin when something else interrupted us. It was the ringing of my phone, which was sitting on the table next to the couch.

Groaning, I walked over to the phone, picked it up, and answered, "Hello?"

The person whom I least expected to call me answered back, in a bored-sounding voice. "Is this Elana?"

It was Gill, the mayor's son. I found it pretty odd that he was calling me, considering the fact that he found me extremely annoying.

"Yeah, what's it to yah?" I dared to answer back, not really caring if I got in trouble for being rude. Mayor Hamilton was great. His son? Not so much.

"I need you to stop by the Mayor's Office. _Now."_

"Gee, Gill, as pleasantly inviting as that sounds, I think I'll have to pass."

"_It's important."_

"I have better things to do."

"_Please, _Elana."

I paused. I think that was the first time I had ever heard him say please. Well, to me, at least.

I made sure to groan loudly enough for Gill to hear it. "_Fine._ I'll be right there. This better be important." I hung up before he could say anything else. Don't get me wrong; I'm generally a nice person. If it were the actual mayor who called, or anyone else for that matter, I would have rushed over there in a second. Gill was just… _different._

"What does he want?" Finn flew over to my shoulder and sat himself upon it.

"I don't know… but he said it was important." I shrugged. "I should probably go see what he wants. Want to wait here and make sure no one decides to steal any of our ingredients?" Some times, people thought that instead of buying their own supplies to make the cakes, it would just be ok to take my stuff, since I owned a farm and all. Well, they're wrong.

"Ok. Hurry back, Elana." Finn floated back over to the kitchen counter, and got himself comfortable on top of the bag of flour.

I nodded, and then headed out. I almost decided to take Milo and ride on him, but I decided against it. Taking him to Flute Fields and Garmon Mines was usually ok, since they weren't highly populated areas. But riding a horse through Harmonica Town would not only gain me a stranger reputation that I currently owned, but would probably get me kicked out.

So I had to walk. No big deal. It took about twenty minutes to get over there. I had to follow a narrow dirt path until I reached a large stone bridge, signaling the entrance to Harmonica Town. The Town Hall was one of the very first buildings that came into view as I entered the port town.

I pushed open the door of the town hall and walked inside.

Gill was sitting behind the long, polished desk in front of the door, scribbling something down on a piece of paper. When I came in, he looked up. I was sorry to say that I couldn't read the expression planted upon his face; it looked like a combination of bored and hopeful. Or just plain bored. But, then again, his face usually looked like that.

"Where's the mayor?" I asked, glaring at Gill.

"My _father,"_ he put much emphasis into the word, as if to prove how important he was, "is currently busy attending to preparations for tomorrow's holiday."

"Why am I here? Am I in trouble?" I asked with sarcasm dripping from my voice.

"Actually I…" his face suddenly turned a surprising shade of red. I raised my eyebrows. "I have a favor to ask you."

Still slightly suspicious, but a little less hostile, I asked, "What kind of favor?"

"Well… tomorrow's Harmony Day. And I usually don't bother to make cakes for anyone."

I mentally crossed off Gill's name from my list of people to make cakes for, now knowing I'd get nothing in return. "Go on."

"But this year I-I wanted to make one for someone… But I'm very, very terrible at baking. And decorating. And everything else that involves making a cake."

I was starting to see where this was going. "And…?"

"And… I need your help."

I put my hands on my hips stubbornly. "What makes you think I'd want to help you?"

"Because…" his face went a shade redder, "because the cake's going to be for Luna…"

Once again, my eyebrows shut up. Now that I thought about it, Gill _had_ shown some mild signs of interest in the tailor's youngest granddaughter. Plus, they would be pretty good together. They were both rude, mouthy, and bratty.

I wasn't a fan of either of them.

"That doesn't change anything," I informed him.

"But," he looked panicked for a second, then recomposed himself, "what if _you_ couldn't bake a cake. A cake for…" he looked thoughtful for a second, then said, "a cake for Chase! What if you couldn't bake a cake for _him?_"

It was my turn to blush, my face heating up instantly. I wasn't informed that Gill knew I liked Chase, the chef working at Brass Bar. Personally, I didn't particularly like the fact that Gill knew anything about my love life. But he did have a point.

"Ok, fine. I'll help you bake a cake for Luna." I finally grumbled.

"Good. If you said no, I might have had to sue you."

"Wait, what!"

"Come, we can head to my house." Gill stood up without further explanation, and walked past me to the door. I had no choice but to follow him.

The mayor's house was very close to the office. After walking up a small, paved street, we stooped though a low archway, through a garden with flowers of every color, and into the mayor's house.

It was a fairly large house, at least large compared to the other houses in Harmonica Town. The inside of it, like many houses on the island, had one room for a kitchen, living room, and eating room. Then there were two rooms branching off of the main one: what I assumed to be Mayor Hamilton's room, and Gill's room.

There was a fireplace on the wall opposite from the door we had entered through. There were paintings lining the wall of various things; rolling fields of bright yellow flowers, the sunset over the ocean, the stars in the night sky. There were other pictures, too; a picture of Hamilton when he was younger, a family photo of Gill and the mayor, and a photo of a woman with bleach blond hair and very blue eyes. It must have been the mayor's wife.

This wasn't the first time I had been in the house, but it was the first time I was paying attention to detail.

Gill cleared his throat, and I snapped back into reality. "So. I have all the ingredients already. I was thinking shortcake. I have some strawberries from the farms, and the rest of the ingredients from Ocarina Inn."

I invited myself over to the kitchen counter, where I could see the ingredients laid out. "It won't taste as good since they aren't fresh, but we can still work with it."

He shrugged, joining me. "As long as it looks and tastes relatively good. Rumor has it you're a good chef. It was either you, Chase, or Maya. So, obviously, you were the best choice for the job."

"Thanks?" I didn't quite know if that was a complement or not.

"Ok, let's get this over with."

"Let's."

So we added the ingredients, mixed it all up, and put it into the oven. It needed to bake for forty-five minutes. In that time we made frosting, and when that was done we conversed lightly, getting ourselves comfortable in the sitting room. It was still a little awkward, baking a cake with the mayor's son, but at least we were getting along a little better than before.

When the cake was finally done, we got out the strawberries and frosting, and were about to start decorating, when Gill stopped me.

"Wait… the cake needs something else."

"What? It'll look fine."

He shook his head, one hand on his chin and the other on the opposite elbow. "Luna hates the color white unless it's on a dress."

"Ok, two questions. First, how do you know that? Second, why does that matter?"

"First, I have my sources. Second, the frosting is white."

"Oh," I said, seeing the problem. "What do you want me to do about it?"

"Is there some place that sells coloring? Ocarina Inn? The General Store?"

I thought hard, and then said, "Ocarina Inn might have some. They use coloring for their ice cream. Want me to go and grab some?"

To my surprise, Gill waved his hand, as if dismissing the thought. "No, no I'll buy it. I'll be right back."

I thought if I argued with him he'd change his mind for sure. "Ok. I'll finish with anything else we need."

"Alright." Gill was already getting on a fancy coat, getting ready to leave.

When he was half way out the door, he turned back and said, "Oh, and Elana?"

Expecting a thank you, I answered, "Yeah?"

Without warning his eyes narrowed menacingly. "You better not go snacking on the cake." And without explanation, he strode out the door, shutting it behind him.

"Jeez, why does everyone think I can't control myself when it comes to food?" I mumbled angrily to no one in particular.

I pulled up a chair next to the kitchen counter, where the cake was sitting patiently, still steaming slightly from its trip out of the oven. It was light and fluffy-looking. Not to mention yummy-looking.

Suddenly, my stomach growled. It then occurred to me that I hadn't had anything to eat, all day, and it was way past noontime.

I glanced back at the cake, but then shook my head rigorously. Nope, not going to happen!

But, it did look really, really good…

No!

I turned the chair away from the cake, giving myself a nice view of the rest of the house. That was better!

"Hey… Hey _kid."_

That's when my day really started going downhill.

Slowly, afraid of what I would see, I turned myself back to the counter where the cake sat. There it was, looking as delicious as before. I glanced around. There wasn't anyone else here.

"Mis-Mister Cake?" I stammered, my voice an octave higher than it should have been.

Then, the cake moved. There was a giant crack running through it horizontally, splitting it in half. It was a mouth. The cake said, "Yeah, that's my name."

"Oh my gosh." I shut my eyes tight. "Just ignore it. Just ignore the talking cake. Maybe it will go away!"

"Yeah, good luck with that."

I opened one eye, peeking out at the cake. My mouth was watering. "What do you want?" I asked, although I already knew the answer.

"What do _I_ want? I don't know, but I certainly know what _you_ want." The cake chuckled.

My eyes were as wide as platters. I nearly fell of my chair. "No, mister cake!" I stammered, "If I eat you, Gill will hate me forever! But… you do look _really _good… just one little bite wouldn't hurt, right?"

"Of course not! Besides, how would he even notice if you just took one little bite? I mean, c'mon! Just because he _dresses_ smart, doesn't mean he _is_ smart!"

"Yeah… he isn't very smart, is he? I mean, who can't bake a cake?"

"Exactly! _You're _the one who made me, not him! You deserve to eat me! Why should he give it to some pink-haired brat who refuses to eat white frosting?"

"Yeah!" I stood up, feeling strangely energized. "Why should Luna get cake? I deserve cake so much more than her!"

"Right!"

"Right!"

"So, c'mon! What are you waiting for? Eat me, Elana! Eat me and all the riches in the world will be yours! You'll be famous! Chase will love you! Finn will stop waking you up so early in the morning! The Harvest Goddess will stop giving you impossible tasks! The island will be saved, so no more villagers will be complaining! Collin will stop telling bad jokes, Edge will stop crying, and every annoying person in the world will randomly set on fire! And you'll get front row seats to see it all!"

"Wow, Mr. Cake, I had no idea my dream world was so twisted!"

"Oh, it is, trust me. Now, c'mon, kid! Dig in!"

* * *

Gill returned half an hour later. He pushed open the door, holding a small glass bottle of pink food coloring. "Elana, I got the stuff. Let's keep going-"

His eyes fell onto the kitchen counter, where I was sitting, looking happy.

The cake wasn't there.

His face went red with anger. "ELANA!"

My face was the perfect image of innocence. "What? What's wrong?" I asked.

"Where. Is. The. Cake?" He managed to roar between clenched teeth.

"What cake?" I asked with the same amount of innocence.

He lost it. "WHAT DO YOU THINK! THE CAKE WE SPENT MOST OF THE DAY WORKING ON, THAT'S WHAT CAKE! WHAT HAPPENED TO IT!"

"Well, funny story," I started, "See, it started talking to me. It _really _wanted me to eat it. And I felt really bad, so I had to do it! I mean, you would have done the same thing, am I right?"

He looked at me, incredulous.

I burst into laughter; so happy I had fooled him. "Come on, Gill! Do you really not trust me that much?" I got up and strolled over to the fridge. I opened it, and inside, sitting on the top shelf, was the cake. "See? I didn't eat it!"

Gill let out the breath he had been holding. "Thank the Harvest Goddess. Elana, don't ever do that again… you just gave me a heart attack."

"Then, why aren't you dead?"

He threw me an annoyed look. Then he looked up at the cake again. He looked confused. "Elana, why is there a gag tied around the cake?"

Realizing I had forgotten to take off the thing I had used to make the cake shut up, I hastily closed the refrigerator door with my foot. "So, what's for lunch?"

**A/N: Ta Da! That was a lame ending…**

** Please review, if you liked it! And if you didn't like it, review and tell me what I can improve upon! Thanks!**

** If you liked this, I have some other Harvest Moon fics out there, too. This is my first one with Gill in it, but I'm working on two other one's with him: one funny, and the other sad. Stay tuned!**

** Thank you for reading!**

** ~blue-eyed-cow**


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